“Today’s guest blogger is webcam extraordinaire, Ken Pittman. When Ken attempts to ski he usually turns into a human snowball, but he knows resort marketing. Ken is the interactive marketing director for TrueLook Webcams, a service company specializing in resort webcams, live-event webcams, and construction time-lapses.”

I’ve probably seen a dozen studies on the power of peer recommendations (here’s one). The fact is, consumers trust their friends far more than they trust brands. While that surely doesn’t surprise you, it does highlight the important role your customers play as advocates for your resort.

Because of this, your resort webcam should encourage sharing and interaction. When your website visitors share your webcam, you’re reaching new audiences through a trusted peer. And while you should encourage sharing for your other content as well, webcams are a uniquely engaging and visual experience. They lend themselves well to being shared while simultaneously educating consumers about your product.

Three Keys
There are three things that affect the sharability of your webcam.

First and foremost is the content – does your camera show something worth sharing? Camera quality can make a noticeable difference, but you should be most concerned with where you mount it.

A live webcam of your snow depth measurements might inform your customers, but it does nothing to convince new business. I’d recommend showing the actual slopes, complete with the social scene. Make webcam viewers wish they were really there.

The second thing to consider is interactivity. The more engaging your webcam, the longer each visitor will stay, the deeper the impact, and the more likely the user is to share it. Some webcam systems have interactive features built-in. Pan-Tilt-Zoom webcams, for example, let users aim and zoom the camera with physical motors. Some systems can display live weather conditions, host user generated photo albums, and more.

But even with a basic webcam setup, a little creativity can go a long way. For example, you could easily set up your webcam so that customers can be seen by friends and family back home, as this beach resort has done.

Thirdly, provide tools that make sharing easy. This can be as simple as a Facebook sharing button on your webpage. Professional webcams can also come with built-in social sharing features. Just make sure your visitors don’t have to work in order to share your webcam.

Ultimately, a webcam is just like any other marketing tool. Its effectiveness is relative to how well you use it. Consider how sharable your webcam is, and work to craft an engaging experience for your web visitors. And remember, it is ok to test different ideas and camera views. Your fans will let you know what they like!

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.